A predator attacks, grabs your wrist, places a hand over your mouth, attempts to take control. He’s bigger than you. Stronger than you. No one else is around.

But he’s still human.

“A nose is a nose, an eye is an eye, a groin is a groin,” says Brockton police officer Raymond Parrett, a 19-year veteran on the force and an expert in self-defense.

On Friday, he shared a few basic tactics women can use against such an attack.

“If you have to do something,” said Parrett, “give a quick palm to the nose, a thumb to the eye, a stomp to the shin, a kick to the groin. Any one of those combinations could buy you some time.”

The main goal, though, he said, is to get away to safety.

As news continues to break in the homicide investigation of Amy E. Lord, whose body was found beaten and stabbed and dumped at Stony Brook Reservation in Hyde Park on Tuesday, Boston officials and politicians are working to quell the fear that has a grip on residents from South Boston to the South Shore and beyond.

In Boston on Friday, Mayor Thomas M. Menino, with help from the city’s police force, handed out whistles in South Boston as they discussed safety and tools available.

The Boston Police Department has seen a surge in requests for permits to carry mace, tallying 50 requests on Thursday, up from an average of three per day, the Boston Globe reported.

Meanwhile, the phones at Lord’s former gym reportedly did not stop ringing, as women, shaken by Lord’s gruesome death, called to sign up for self-defense classes.

Such classes are available throughout the Brockton region as well, at the YMCA, on college campuses and taught at private gyms, often by veteran police officers who use the skills daily.

“It’s better to be prepared than caught off guard,” said Shauna Ferris, health and wellness director for the Old Colony YMCA in Brockton, which offers self-defense courses twice each year as a way to remind people, particularly around the holidays, to be alert.

“You always just want to be prepared and ready,” said Ferris, 34, “even if you think it’s never going to happen to you or think you’re never going to be in that situation.”

Such incidents are rare, said Brockton Police Lt. Paul Bonanca.

“But you should always be on your guard,” he said. “The biggest thing is to be aware of your surroundings.”

One tool women have to ward off an attack is pepper spray.

Residents must apply first for a Firearms Identification Card, known commonly as an FID card, which can be obtained from local police departments. A mace-only license will cost $25, and requires the person to fill out an application with background, criminal and employment information.

Page 2 of 3 - If approved, a card similar to a driver’s license will be sent back to the local department, where the applicant can pick it up. The process takes about six weeks. A license lasts five years.

Pepper spray can then be purchased with a valid ID locally at places such as Andrea’s Police Supply in Raynham, Dick’s Sporting Goods or even Walmart.

Bridgewater police officer Scott Hile, who helps teach self-defense courses in Bridgewater and West Bridgewater once each year, said as part of his course, he trains women on how to hold the spray and where to focus it – at the forehead, or mucus membranes, he says.

The propellant inside, made from cayenne pepper, will cause the attacker’s eyes to water, his skin to sting, and his breath to seize.

But it doesn’t work on everybody, including sometimes, persons who are mentally ill or just determined, said Michael Skinner, Brockton’s firearms licensing officer.

“Don’t get me wrong, it’s better to try it than not,” he said.

Others, such as Parrett, are “extremely” against the tool.

“You will never get to it,” said Parrett, who said he has never once heard of someone being jumped and reaching it in time.

“Trust me when I say this, these people know how to swoop in,” he said, adding: “Why carry the stuff when you can learn a skill that you can bring anywhere.”

Self-defense classes teach women basic techniques, such as how to release themselves from wrist-grabs or choke-holds, what to use in certain situations, and what to do to defend against weapons.

In Bridgewater, due to a lack of people signing up, last year’s course was canceled, said Hile, of the Bridgewater Police Department.

“It’s like a seat belt,” described Parrett. “They haven’t had an accident in 10 years, so they figure they don’t need a seat belt.”

Students as young as 5 years old have signed up for Parrett’s class, and Ferris, of the YMCA, said she did a demonstration at the senior center last year, where elderly women learned moves as simple as repositioning your hand or foot.

“It’s that easy,” said Ferris.

On area college campuses, another class known as RAD – Rape Aggression Defense – is offered, free of charge. The popular course is a 12-hour simulation class that teaches women awareness exercises and basic self-defense techniques.

At Stonehill College in Easton, where hundreds of students have gone through the program, the course serves as a piece of the campus’ overall crime-prevention program and offers valuable skills for women entering a new environment, said Det. Lt. David Bamford, who helps teach it.

Page 3 of 3 - Police say Lord, a 24-year-old Wilbraham native, was beaten in her South Boston home, then abducted and taken to five separate ATMs to withdraw money before she was killed.

Police are continuing their investigation, “working around the clock,” Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis said in a Friday press conference.

In custody for assaults on two other women from that same day is 28-year-old Edwin Alemany, whom Boston police have named as a “person of interest” in Lord’s killing. Investigations were ongoing Friday, which included DNA testing and fingerprinting.

Alemany is being held at Bridgewater State Hospital for a psychiatric evaluation. He has not been charged with Lord’s death.